Captain's Log 13: Updates Ho!

Ahoy Pathfinders!

Before we begin, you’re probably wondering two things, what happened to the other 12 Captain Log’s and isn’t it bad juju to start with 13? Well, to address the former, they were lost out at sea! Kidding, they’re still available to read on Steam but now that we’ve opened our Community Hub, we’ll have regularly scheduled posts here and on Steam each Monday which will cover the latest news, development updates, patch notes, contests and more. As for bad luck? We’re hardened adventurers! We fear nothing and no one!

To get started, let’s discuss the launch, the boatload of updates we’ve had so far, as well as our initial development battleplan!

Launch and Patch Notes

For those that want to skip to starter, and jump right into the entrée, here’s a link to the latest changelog:

You could say that we were off to a stormy start! The initial influx of players wanting to set sail immediately was (predictably in hindsight) larger than we anticipated and our systems got crushed until we tuned the new technical systems to handle it. We have been incredibly humbled and excited by the number of seafaring Pathfinders wanting to dive into the ATLAS. Since the launch, the team has heavily prioritised connection and capacity resolutions, server and client-side performance updates, server and client-side crash fixes as well as tackling general gameplay bugs and balance concerns.

We’re going to continue to iterate at a very rapid rate, you can generally expect daily deployments and updates to both servers and clients, and sometimes even multiple if we feel like a change is significant enough to warrant it. We truly appreciate everyone’s patience and support during this launch period and we intend to show our gratitude through frequent updates that resolve the issues which matter to you and improve ATLAS in both the near-term and over the long term.

ATLAS is a very ambitious project and we recognize that there is much work to be done as it begins its Early Access journey, but as we said before, we’re hardened adventurers and we’re looking forward to the fun and challenges that we’ll experience alongside you!

We want to make it very clear to you that these rapid updates and the continuous upwards progression will continue with ATLAS. We have deployed a new server version to our Official Network (v7.104) which has resolved many server crashes and is already showing significant improvement in server stability; however, there is still more to come! Our number one priority at the moment is tackling the stability, connection, and data issues, and we will make significant progress over the coming days ahead.

The full list of the changelog for our upcoming update later tonight which focused on balance and stability, as well as the changelog for our update last night which dealt with a lot of gameplay bugs and stability.

Patch 7.3 Notes:

- Server-side crash fixes and stability improvements- Server stability improved 40%+ . More to come.
- Reduced Army of the Damned ships spawn rate by 60%
- Reduced Army of the Damned ship HP per level scaling by 20%
- Reduced Army of the Damned ship Aggro range by 10%
- Boosted Army of the Damned ship loot quality by 10%
- Reduced Flotsam spawn rate by 35%
- Increased Treasuremap item quality by 15%
- Eliminated at-sea increased rate of vitamin/vitals consumption. Now it just causes food to spoil faster, and temperatures to drop.
- Increased vitamin equilibrium range to +/- 20% rather than 10% (making it easier to achieve and stay in equilibrium)
- Decreased vitamin deficiency debuff threshold to 10% rather than 20%
- Reduced base rate of vitamin consumption by 2%
- Ensured army of the damned ships spawn farther away from shore, and don't spawn too near player ships
- Fixed Diving Platform to take any oils, not just blubber
- Changed Lighthouse HP to 25k, gave it stone structure settings, and allow it to burn oil
- Vultures will no longer erroneously target players they can't hit
- Army of the Damned Ships will no longer initially aggro to drydocked or anchored ships, unless fired upon by them or already targeting them.
- Added one more Skill Point earned by all level-ups above 10 (recommend players Respec)

Released v7 Patches Notes

- Added a new event cosmetic, 'Top Hat'. Permanent skin with 10 applicable uses. Can be purchased from Cosmetic Vendors in Freeports or Travelling Merchants. From the 27th of December, through til the 2nd of January, wearing this hat whilst digging up treasure will result in double the gold.
- Improved server performance by adjusting server water thread utilization
- Changed declaim period (stealing enemy territory) to 30 minutes from 1.5 hours (requires they have no alive crew or players in the vicinity)
- Removed requirement to be on a boat to steal someone's boat after placing the claim flag. Adjusted base value times to claim the boats to be 1 one minute to steal a dinghy, 2hrs~ to steal a raft, a couple hours to steal sloop, and so forth (levelling a ship increases the time it takes to steal that ship).
- Rebalanced Skill Point requirements as originally intended, where higher tier skills cost more SP. Forced a one-time 'free' respec to use these new values.
- "Low Memory" Launch Option for more reliable <= 8GB OS support. Launch the game with '-lowmemorymode' to utilize this!
- Ship collision damage is now disabled on Freeport servers.
- Alpha creature spawns are now disabled on Freeport and Lawless Servers.
- Item yield and Gold yield from Treasure have been doubled
- Significantly reduced Torch and Fire Arrow Damage
- Fixed a bug which prevented resources from respawning. Please note when this update goes live, it may be a few hours until they naturally start appearing again.
- Increased the damage from Dragon Fire AOE and set it to an 8-hour tame time with the token
- Equilibrium Buff now gives +20% XP, -20% reduced incoming damage, +30 temperature fortitude, +10% movement speed, +20% melee damage, and takes 30 minutes to achieve rather than an hour.
- Fixed a bug which prevented Bottles and Flotsams from spawning
- Fixed a bug ocean and deep ocean spawners, including Mermaids, Whales, Ship of the Damned, and Squids.
- NPC crew that are recruited in Freeport are now correctly assigned to your team.
- Fixed Shovels and Heavy Shields so they no longer damage stone structures
- All freeports now have pirate music in town
- Scuttling is now tied to the demolishing tribe governance setting and Prevent Demolishing Structures in Group Management Settings
- Group ranks now enabled on seating structures, so you're able to have better control of who is able to use those (Steering Wheel and Lt Podium)
- PvE Claim Flag contesting now displays the enemy Claim Flag's upkeep time remaining before you can contest it, and provides a proper HUD message to that effect.

Stay tuned for more updates to come in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead. This game is going to be huge, and we’ve got a lot in store for you!

Captain’s Quarters

Hello all, apologies for the challenging launch here! Between the intensity of preparing for the release of a massively multiplayer title, and the needs to get all of the new infrastructure prepared to roll-out, we let the schedule and initial launch builds get away from us. Hunkered down in our development bunker 24/7 subsisting on Red Bulls and stale pizza, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture, which ought to start and end with communication to the players. Despite it all, I’m so happy that so many of you see the potential in what ATLAS is, and are enjoying the immense scale of sandbox freedom that can readily be had in the game. As we churn through issues and continue to build out the game in the days, weeks, and months ahead, I’m looking forward to seeing what’s just over the horizon for the game and its growing community. As a great poet of the sea once wrote: “All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”

On a side note: the ATLAS Dev Kit & Steam Workshop! We haven’t forgotten about it, and the hooks for it are all ready to build the large-scale wargame of your dreams. We need Epic’s help to release it in early January, and tentatively intend for it to release by January 7, if not sooner. We will post further news as we get it ready to ship out then. In the meantime, you can experiment if you have server administrator rights with the following commands to mess around with some Dev Kit example vehicles:

Have fun, just be sure you have enough runway to take off in that plane, else you might find yourself in the drink!

-Jeremy

Work Like a Captain, Party Like a… Lord?

Ye be cordially invited to join th’ crew at the Captain’s table to celebrate the New Year in style! Startin' from today with this update, the' 26th o' December, runnin' right through the New Year 'til th' 2nd o' January, Pathfinders can get involved in the' festive celebrations by pickin' up a Top Hat at thar nearest cosmetic vendor, located in all Freeports or at a Travellin’ Merchant!

All Pathfinders wearin' a top hat whilst diggin' up booty protected by the damned will be granted double the normal reward in gold! This bonus holiday effect be applied upon the distribution o' th' loot, so regardless o' whoever digs up th' booty, be it ye or a scallywag, as long as ye're wearin' th' hat ye'll get th' bonus between the 26th t’ tha 2nd.

Th' Top Hat Skins will remain in game forever, however, they will 'ave a limited number of skin applications 'n th' bonus effect will only last 'til th' 2nd o' January!

We know this isn’t the biggest Holiday Event to launch with, given our focus on shoring up our planks from the launch period. Rest assured we have far more ambitious limited-run events planned for the future!

Dynamic ATLAS Maps Round-Up

Congratulations to the following companies for topping the leaderboards of our Dynamic Maps! The ATLAS Dynamic Maps is a system that monitors live in-game territory ownership and indicates which companies dominate over the lands. Soon, the Companies that have occupied Islands for a certain period of time will gain the automatic privilege to name them on the in-game and web maps, as it is their land! So each week with our Captain’s Log, we’ll be including an image to monitor the progress of the maps, taking note of any exits or new arrivals and any drastic changes in the overall claim. As this is just the first week of the ATLAS, we expect the Dynamic Maps to show a very turbulent representation as Companies expand their territories and go to war. Who will come to dominate the ATLAS may very well become clear in the days and weeks ahead, though maintaining a large Empire will likely come with its own longer-term challenges...

Remember you can don your tribe’s company flag by stylizing it in the game with a paintbrush! Upload your own images or design it how you like, with the top company flags always being visible on https://map.playatlas.com/

We be seekin’ fer the finest of ATLAS community creations! Show us yer mighty fleets, paint pieces, flags & sails, impenetrable forts, hellish tats, scenic screenshots, 'n entertainin' videos! Each week, we'll be runnin' a contest where we'll select th' best o' th' bunch 'n award tha winners wit' a cash prize! The first contest starts today 'n the winners will be announced in the next Captain's Log!

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Leaving thousands of players in the unknown about why they cannot connect all of a sudden after YOU broke our connection on YOUR patches. Is inexcusable. I've have never ever been so pissed off with a company before and fighting for my refund back on steam because I have 30 hours of relaunching the game over and over. how the F*** are you going to let me play the first 2 days then all of a sudden thousands of us cant connect and somehow its on OUR END?!?! wtf is wrong with you seriously. I've never hated people more in my life then the kind of people that just let thousands of players sit here relaunching your game over and over again for 16+ hours a day thinking we can get in. BUT DONT WORRY YOU FIXED THE TREES! seriosuly F*** you scammers. No Access is NOT early access, and you provide zero statements on the matter, there are non stop posts of people left wondering what is going on and you don't even have the decency to come out and say wtf you did wrong to break our connections.

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I waited at the freeport server border for the patch to launch as you guys claimed it would fix the timeout error when transitioning to another server. I have been lv 8 for 4 days now. I cant refund the game as im well passed that point with the loading screen patch where you just saw the loading screen. I am trying to enjoy this game, as I enjoyed Ark, but locking me at lv 8 in a pleb zone with nothing to do, then when i crossed the server border, it made it so i could not log back in at all and delivers a time out error everytime.

Im going to end my report of my issues here as I will say something that ill regret. all your shiny new features are great and all, but maybe you should make it so the game is ACCESSIBLE to everyone who has bought it and cant refund it. You already have unbalanced maps now because some people can get ahead, while the rest of us are stuck in your lv 8 capped zones. kind of tired of it. ;)

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Seriously, the skill rebalance in v7.0 was ridiculous, unnecessary, and cruel. This game has countless pressing issues, and a dramatic skill overhaul shouldn't be at or near the top of the priority list for the moment. Smaller companies need to be able to compete, and kicking folks in the teeth by forcing them to specialize to an extreme degree is NOT the appropriate course of action. How does locking smaller companies and solo players out of content help the game in any way, shape, or form?

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Leaving thousands of players in the unknown about why they cannot connect all of a sudden after YOU broke our connection on YOUR patches. Is inexcusable. I've have never ever been so pissed off with a company before and fighting for my refund back on steam because I have 30 hours of relaunching the game over and over. how the F*** are ﻿you going to let me play the first 2 days th﻿en all of a sudden thousands of us cant connect and somehow its on OUR END?!?! wtf is wrong with you seriously. I've never hated ﻿people more in my life then the kind of people that just let thousands of players sit here relaunching your game over and over again for 16+ hours a day thinking we can get in. BUT DONT WORRY YOU FIXED THE TREES! seriosuly F*** you scammers. No Access is NOT early access, and you provide zero statements on the matter, there are non stop posts of people left wondering what is going on and you don't even have the decency to come out and say wtf you did wrong to break our connections.

Just an FYI, early access starts from the moment you click play, not when you get in game. You are a Beta tester. Getting errors and issues are part of Early Access.

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Just an FYI, early access starts from the moment you click play, not when you get in game. You are a Beta tester. Getting errors and issues are part of Early Access.

I 100% will tell you if you had the same issue you would not be talking like. You stay up for 20 horus a day relaunching game because the company refuses to say anything, it is already speculated that their way of "stabilizing" the servers is by preventing batches of players from joining. The reason why more and more people every single patch ALL OF A SUDDEN "I get host connection Lost/timedout connection to server" ALL THEY HAVE TO SAY IS "Hey guys we need less load on our servers so we are only letting a certain amount in, we are too busy /braindead to create a login que system so we are just going to randomly choose people to not allow into the server" Then I would be like HEY! that makes sense now I wont waste my ENTIRE F***ing day relaunching a game they CLAIM im SUPPOSED TO be able to join. I Speak for MANY MANY MANY others who in different patches on different days ALL of a sudden out of the clear blue sky are UNABLE to join. @Atlas Stop fucking leaving your customers sitting here reloading your piece of shit game 1000 times a day and just tell us its not going to work you braindead mongoloids. Have some fucking morals. You truly are fucking evil to claim you fixed server problems every single patch yet we still cant log in but assume we can. Ban me if you want but I speak for many people when I say I am disappointed in you as human beings, and your only white knights are people that HAVE been able to play since launch.

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Can you please communicate about claims? Do claims currently work like you intended, especially on PVE servers? Will you address players who can't place a single claim and are forced to play as raft refugees.

Edited December 28, 2018 by kolpo

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As you probably have seen in the forums and on twitter, soloplayers and small companies are left crippled and unable to enjoy game after the talentnerf. Not one single word about this is a really shitty behaviour from your side. A ton of players feels left in the gutter and you act like it is raining. Get your fucking act together and make the game enjoyable for soloplayers or offer refunds! I have been playing Ark since start of EA and not nothing to did there can compare what you did to soloplayers. Stop this shit and give us an answer! If you have interest in making it friendly for soloplayers then give us a refund! 30hrs of play and 25euros down the drain!

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I 100% will tell you if you had the same issue you would not be talking like. You stay up for 20 horus a day relaunching game because the company refuses to say anything, it is already speculated t﻿hat their way of "stabilizing" the servers is by preventing batches of players from joining. The reason why more and more people every single patch ALL OF A SUDDEN "I get host connection Lost/timedout connection to server" ALL THEY HAVE TO SAY IS "Hey guys we need less load on our servers so we are only letting a certain amount in, we a﻿re ﻿too busy /braindead to create a login que system so we a﻿re just going t﻿o randomly choose people to not allow into the server" Then I would be like HEY! that makes sense now I wont waste my ENTIRE F***ing day rela﻿unching a game they CLAIM im SU﻿PPOSED TO be able to join. I Speak for MANY MANY MANY others who in differen﻿t patches on different days ALL of a sudden out of the clear blue sky are UNABLE to join. @Atlas Stop fucking leaking your customers sitting here reloading your piece of shit game 1000 times a day and just tell us its not going to work you braindead mongoloids. Have some fucking morals. You truly are fucking evil to claim you fixed server problems every single patch yet we still cant log in but assume we can. Ban me if you want but I speak for many people when I say I am disappointed in you as human beings, and your only white knights are people that HAVE been able to play since launch.

Its been your choice to stay up 20 hours a day clicking launch. If anything, that is probably not helping you get in.

Do you know anything about games development? Or even about servers in general? There are so many variables they need to analyse and test. Just because they roll out a patch, doesnt mean it is going to fix it for everyone. Thats why it is called early access. They are getting data from everyone so they can resolve all the problems. Yes, this may not be straight away to you liking, but thats the way early access is.

I sympathise for you, but unfortunately this is what you have got yourself in for.

The Devs are actually doing a great job with the updates and with the communication. There have been far full game launches out there. Yes its not been the best start, but again, thats what early access is.

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This -lowmemorymode doesn't seem to work at least it's not working for me, still having 20+ minutes connecting and loading times, without even getting into the server, at all.
What is even more weird is that if this is an actual memory leak issue, how come some of the players have it and not all have it? There has to be commonality present here, so assuming it's a memory leak, then what is triggering the memory leak to occur, furthermore, what amount of memory do you consider low memory?

Currently I'm launching the game with -lowmemorymode -high -nosplash -novsync, currently have over 19 hours logged, but only have around less 1 hour of actual game time.
It also seems to be suffering from some of same connection, loading and responsiveness issues as Ark does.

I would really like to be able to disable the menu video files from playing, and I'm thinking it might actually be affecting performance that it's running. I'm also noticing that it's the .wmv type of file which also might be affecting, instead of using an OPTIMIZED format for video play back in menus, like bink videos by radgametools.

Perhaps you could add a debug startup parameter that will the game to create a log of whats going on when trying to connect and load the game, because this way it's becomes possible to be a lot more accurate in determining what and where it goes bad. I'm sure most of us who're not able to connect / load into the game servers, have client crashed, random disconnects and so, would be inclined to share whatever logs that are created this way, to help determine the cause of this so you in turn can fix it.

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Just an FYI, early access starts from the moment you click play, not when you get in game. You are a Beta tester. Getting errors and issues are part of Early Access.

Just an FYI, quite a few people cannot even log on as it is as early access states, UNPLAYABLE. JUST an FYI. also, beta testing is fine and dandy, I want this project to succeed as much as everyone else, But adding vanity items over fixing crucial bugs leaving that leave thousands of customers with an unusable piece of software after they paid for it is technically unplayable right? good flex though.

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Just an FYI, quite a few people cannot even log on as it is as early access states, UNPLAYABLE. JUST an FYI. also, beta testing is fine and dandy, I want this project to succeed as much as everyone else, But adding vanity items over fixing crucial bugs leaving that leave thousands of customers with an unusable piece of software after they paid for it is technically unplayable right? good flex though.

The game is in a playable state, but there are server connection issues, that's two different things.

They have literally updated the game at least once a day since launch (except xmas day I think). They are working around the clock to try and get this issue fixed. As I said before, you being unable to join will give them data they need to investigate the issue further.

Also, as with every company, people have different skills. Not all of them will be training in networking/server related skills, so I see no issue with working on other cosmetic items if that is their speciality.

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Its been your choice to stay up 20 hours a day clicking launch. If anything, that is probably not helping you get in.

Do you know anything about games development? Or even about servers in general? There are so many variables they need to analyse and test. Just because they roll out a patch, doesnt mean it is going to fix it for everyone. Thats why it is called early access. They are getting data from everyone so they can resolve all the problems. Yes, this may not be straight away to you liking, but thats the way early access is.

I sympathise for you, but unfortunately this is what you have got yourself in for.

The Devs are actually doing a great job with the updates and with the communication. There have been far full game launches out there. Yes its not been the best start, but again, thats what early access is.

The most active forum posts are Connectivity issues, Do I need to be a game developer to say I logged on first day and played perfectly fine then they release a patch and I can no longer connect anymore. But don't worry they communicate about the issue right? Oh right no they don't. But hey I'm glad they fixed tree respawns in game. You continue to have fun playing the game while I am sitting here with no information one what THEY broke and if its fixable ANYTIME SOON. So no they do not communicate shit and there is a damn good reason they have the worst steam reviews which are VERY so justified. We would be SO much happier and patient if they said SOMETHING and explained ANYTHING for the problem. They simply do not care is the bottom of it. The LEAST they can do is offer refunds to the people who cannot even TEST the fucking game. I tested their play button on the stema page for 4 days now. I did not pay 25$ to press play. I'll gladly take that money and actually launch any other fucking game on steam. Explanation or refund. Again it is not JUST me, we are talking thousands of people that have the same issue that these devs REFUSE to acknowledge. Im sure 50% of us would be perfectly fine with an explanation not even an ETA. But to sit there and watch all these forum posts and tweets about the #1 issue and not fucking have the decency to speak upon it, is UNACCEPTABLE.

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[...] But adding vanity items over fixing crucial bugs leaving that leave thousands of customers with an unusable piece of software after they paid for it is technically unplayable right? [...]

You do realize the people who work on vanity items are not the same people who work on servers, right? Should all the artists just sit around doing absolutely nothing while they fix your specific issue? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. They're a team who all work in parallel, so just because one thing is being done someplace in the studio, doesn't mean no one else is working on other things.

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The most active forum posts are Connectivity issues, Do I need to be a game developer to say I logged on first day and played perfectly fine then they release a patch and I can no longer connect anymore. But don't worry they communicate about the issue right? Oh right no they don't. But hey I'm glad they fixed tree respawns in game. You c﻿ontinue to have fun playing th﻿e game while I am sitting here﻿ with no information one what THEY bro﻿k﻿e and if its fixable ANYTIME SOON. So no they do not communicate shit and there is a damn good reason they have the worst steam reviews which are VERY so justified. We would be SO much happier and patient if they said SOMETHING and explained ANYTHING for the problem. They simply do not care is the bottom of it. The LEAST they can do is offer refunds to the people who cannot even TEST the fucking game. I tested their play button on the stema page for 4 days now. I did not pay ﻿25$ to press play. I'll gladly take that money and ac﻿tually lau﻿nch any other fucking game on steam. Explanation ﻿or re﻿fund. Again it is not JUST me, we are talking tho﻿usands of people that have the same issue that these devs REFUSE to acknowledge. Im sure 50% of us would be perfectly fine with an explanation not even an ETA. But to sit there and watch all these forum posts and tweets about the #1 issue and not fucking have the decency to speak upon it, is UNACCEPTABLE.

If you think they they refuse to acknowledge that this is an issue, you must be deluded. They have commented several times that they are looking into server issues and stability.

In this very post for example:

Server-side crash fixes and stability improvements

Again, these things are not always a "lets turn it off and on again" problem. These things take time. Again thats a fact of Early Access games.

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Just an FYI, quite a few people cannot even log on as it is as early access states, UNPLAYABLE. JUST an FYI. also, beta testing is fine and dandy, I want this project to succeed as much as everyone else, But adding vanity items over fixing crucial bugs leaving that leave thousands of customers with an unusable piece of software after they paid for it is technically unplayable right? good flex though.

Just to emphasize on the information provided in the image ironhyena has uploaded.

You should not use Early Access solely to fund development. If you are counting on selling a specific number of units to complete your game, then you need to think carefully about what it would mean for you or your team if you don't sell that many units. Are you willing to continue developing the game without any sales? Are you willing to seek other forms of investment?

Early Access is not a pre-purchase
Early Access is not meant to be a form of pre-purchase, but a tool to get your game in front of Steam users and gather feedback while finishing your game.

Early Access titles MUST deliver A PLAYABLE game or usable software to the customer AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE, while pre-purchase games are delivered at a future date.

NOW!? Did Atlas provide this at the time of purchase, no it did not. I do want to see Atlas succeed, but I not if the developers priorities aren't right and the majority of the players cannot even play the game and the developers aren't focussing on fixing these issues specifically before anything else. For thousands of players this game is currently UNPLAYABLE and it's basically just wasting people's time.